History

DOTA (Defence of The Ancients) first started in the year 2003 as a multiplayer online battle
arena mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos & its expansion Frozen Throne developed by Blizzard
Entertainment. It was featured in several worldwide tournaments including BizzCon & Asian
WCG (World Cyber Games). Legendary player of Warcraft 3 Jang “moon” Jae-ho who is the champion
of WCG 2008 Warcraft earned over $3 million from 108 tournaments.

American video game developer Valve Corporation acquired all the property rights to Dota
in 2009 to develop a stand-alone sequel DOTA 2, which was released in July 2013. With more
attractive visual upgrade and small tweaks to the gameplay, Heroes & Items Dota 2 has revised
the legacy of its parent. Since its release Dota 2 has been the most played game on Steam
with peaks of over a million concurrent players.

To attract more Dota players & followers towards its sequel Valve sponsored sixteen accomplished
Dota teams to compete at The International, a Dota 2 specific eSports tournament, for a $1
million prize in 2011, which has become an annual grand championship tournament in 2012.

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The International (TI) is an annual Dota 2 eSports tournament hosted by Valve Corporation, the game's developer.

The International

2016 The International

The first details pertaining to The International 2016 were revealed on March 31,
2016, with the announcement of ticket sales for the tournament. Open qualifiers
for The International 2016 began on June 21, with regional qualifiers following
on June 25. Following the qualifiers, the tournament main event took place from
August 3–11, with the finals being held on August 13.

The initial prize pool was seeded with $1,600,000 from the developers, with more
to be added from players through in-game purchases of the Battle Pass.

The final prize pool reached $20,770,460, making the tournament have the largest
prize pool in eSports history.

Place

Team

Prize Money

1st

Wings Gaming

$9,139,002

2nd

Digital Chaos

$3,427,126

3rd

Evil Geniuses

$2,180,898

2015 The International

The first details pertaining to The International 2015 were revealed on January 5, 2015,
with the preliminary announcement of the tournament 16 teams attended the event,
which took place from August 3 to August 8 at the KeyArena in Seattle. The prize
pool totaled more than US$18 million, of which US$16.4 million was contributed by
players. Thanks to this professional Dota 2 is the highest paying eSport in the world
with premium tournaments often have prize pools totaling millions of US dollars.

Place

Team

Prize Money

1st

Evil Geniuses

$6,616,014

2nd

CDEC Gaming

$2,848,562

3rd

LGD Gaming

$2,205,335

2014 The International

On March 31, 2014, Valve announced The International 2014, which would take place from July
18 to July 21 at the KeyArena, which is a venue with a significantly larger capacity
than Benaroya Hall from the previous two years. Unlike the previous three events, there
would be three tiers for admissions, including general admission, floor seating and VIP
passes. Its price pool raised over $10.9 million, exceeding the prizes pools of some
most expensive tournaments in the world of sports like the Super Bowl, Masters Tournament,
and Tour de France.

For The International 2014, 11 teams would receive direct invites, with an additional 4 spots determined by regional qualifiers
taking place between May 12 and May 25. The 16 th spot would be determined by a wild
card qualifier between the runners-up from the regional competitions.